Day 31 Prompt: Edge
Week 6 Prompt: Ability
Weekday Prompt: Fair of Face
And we have reached the final day of the RPGaDAY 2026 Challenge with the prompts Edge, Ability and Fair of Face. While these are very common terms used in roleplaying games, how do I make this article unique?
I’m seeing a lot of posts about the characters having an edge. Or what’s beyond the edge of the map. These are tempting topics of discussion. And I have enjoyed reading a few of them. But there is one group that I believe has an edge when it comes to roleplaying games.
The Gamemaster themselves. Sometimes called Dungeon Masters, Referees, Game Operation Directors (GOD) and a host of other names. But the position is the same. Set up the outlines of the story for the shared storytelling experience, run the non-player characters, and keep the flow of the game moving at a reasonable pace.
Each gamemaster is unique. They all run their tables in their own way. Some use a GMs screen; others prefer an open table. Do they run theater of the mind, or are there maps and figures? Is gaming limited to just at the table, or do they provide opportunities between sessions? How do they handle house rules (agreed upon rules that tweak the system) and table ruling (temporary decisions made to keep the game moving that can be revisited later)?
Where their edge comes from is the ability to alter the game on the fly. As mentioned before, this is a joint storytelling experience. Even as a GM I’ve had my players bring something up that made me think “yeah, that’s better than what I had planned” and I went with it.
In my Star Trek Adventures campaign that I’m currently running, I sent emails to the players with different nuggets of information that their characters would know. Because I didn’t want to make it blatantly obvious “here is your bad guy/McGuffin/clue” I had other nuggets of information seeded into the emails to give it flavoring. Well, one of the players took one of these seasoned nuggets and pushed a theory into the scenario. Suddenly, the pirates who were only going to be seen in a brief appearance became the bad guys who they fought at the end of the night.
Unless my players are reading this blog post now, they never knew that there was a slightly different ending to the episode. I used this ability to give the edge to make my game enjoyable. I always ask for feedback at the end of each game session, and the players told me they all had a good time. So, I’m believing that I used my GM powers wisely.
Gamemasters, you have the edge to make your games enjoyable. Have some flexibility in your games. Use the ability to think on your feet. Be prepared for the players to come up with solutions that you hadn’t thought of. Use the ‘rule-of-cool’ when your players brainstorm. This allows you to be surprised as well. And not knowing how it’s going to end is what makes it unique for everyone.
What abilities do you think give a GM an edge, and what’s the best unexpected idea your players ever came up with? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.